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Sidewalks: The Way They See It Every Tuesday volunteers serve more than 100 Chicago homeless people with food from fine dining restuarants -- all with dignity and grace. Here they are not faceless and referred to as "Guests," and sometimes even as "Artists:" for the last eight years, some of them have received inexpensive disposable cameras and have gone about the adventure of capturing their lives. This work culminates with a ... posted on Jul 31 2011, 3,514 reads
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Lighting the Way in Slums Plastic bottles jut from the roofs in a Manila slum neighborhood. But these bottles have an important purpose: they contain bleach and water and are placed snugly into a purpose-built hole in the roof. Designed by students at MIT, they reflect sunlight, spreading 360 degrees of 55-watt-light through the room beneath. Using the simplest of technologies, these bottles brighten dim and dreary shantie... posted on Jul 30 2011, 4,685 reads
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Pick Up Artists Across America When most people see a fast-food bag fluttering on the corner of the highway, they probably shake their heads and keep on driving. The Pick Up Artists aren't most people. These four young environmentalists are driving across America, conducting roadside cleanups and spreading the word about reducing waste. After just three months on the road, the Pick Up America project has already collected more ... posted on Jul 23 2011, 9,548 reads
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Fostering Virtue "How can we foster more virtue in our societies?" A question sparked for researcher Kentaro Toyama by a one-time interaction with a rickshaw driver in India. This reflective piece goes on to propose ideas for fostering virtue in three areas: Education, Measurement, and Mentoring. And of course, the question "How can I foster more virtue in myself?" comes up as well. There we're left with the intr... posted on Jul 18 2011, 12,495 reads
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29 Lessons From Travelling the World "Eight years. That's 416 weeks, or almost 3,000 days. This is the amount of time that I have not had a fixed home; moving to a new country, culture and language every few months and taking absolutely everything I own with me. In 2003, on the week of my 21st birthday, I left Ireland for good. I had graduated university a few days before, and knew that I'd only be coming back "home" for visits. But ... posted on Jul 17 2011, 62,155 reads
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Sometimes It Just Takes a Penny In this real-life kindness story, a man inspires generosity in a homeless woman after being approached by her for money. Having just heard good news in a friend's life, he offers to buy food for her and shares his inspiration with the homeless lady: "Something nice happened to my friend recently, after a lot of struggles. When you came in, I thought that I should keep that chain of goodness going ... posted on Jun 23 2011, 3,042 reads
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A School for the Homeless In Las Vegas Principal Sherrie Gahn knew she had a problem that a traditional public school could not fix. Inside Whitney Elementary School in East Las Vegas, nearly 85 percent of the children are homeless. That's 518 kids out of 610. "When I saw the children eating ketchup for lunch, and wanting to take it home," she says, "it just crushed me," says Gahn. So she came up with a plan involving the kids, their p... posted on Jun 18 2011, 6,264 reads
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Social Media for Social Change Kecia Cruz's son had been sleeping on a cold linoleum floor since returning to live with his mother nearly two weeks ago. Cruz has served time in prison and her son is a recovering drug addict. Cruz sees her child's return as a second chance. She didn't want him sleeping on the floor, but she didn't know where to turn. Her neighbor had an answer: Beremedy -- an organization that utilizes social me... posted on Jun 16 2011, 3,777 reads
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5 Classic Commencement Speeches It's graduation season, so commencement addresses by actors, politicians, writers, musicians and other luminaries are sweeping the world of higher education, sharing advice ranging from the humorous to the profound. Even for those of us that aren't students, it becomes an opportunity to reflect on the most compelling, provocative and deeply inspirational speeches of years past. This article highl... posted on Jun 14 2011, 15,449 reads
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How One Teenager Used Her Life Savings After finishing high school in New Jersey, Maggie Doyne took a gap year during which she did service projects and cultural programs in South Asia. In India, she met a teenage refugee who had escaped Nepal seven years earlier. Maggie felt moved to accompany the girl back to Nepal in search of her family. In the process, she was deeply touched by the orphans she met in the villages. "It was really t... posted on Jun 12 2011, 16,212 reads
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